This invention relates generally to a system and method for updating wind farm software, especially for updating wind turbine software of wind turbines in a wind farm.
Wind turbines are complex machines for converting the mechanical energy content of wind into electrical energy. Many of their parts are monitored and controlled by specific software applications. For example, the wind turbine controller is connected to a plurality of sensors for sensing the actual values of e.g. output power, power factor, rotor speed and the like. Based on these values, the control software calculates desired values of controllable variables in accordance with an implemented control strategy. Furthermore, individual sensors or embedded controllers run their own software. In addition to wind turbines, a wind farm also includes other installations such as a wind farm management system, wind met masts, a remote access server, an SQL server and/or substations. Also these installations request information and provide data. Accordingly, communication software is typically installed in all the installations of a wind farm.
From time to time it is necessary to update the software of the installations, either part of it or the entire software package. Typically, updates occur because of software bugs which have to be fixed or due to improvement of the wind turbine software.
For example, a process of updating the turbine software utilizes a remote control center RCC to establish a communication link to a wind turbine to be updated. The RCC then transmits the software update to the turbine, waits for the respective hardware to reboot, and disconnects after successful update is confirmed. These steps have to be performed successively with every single installed wind turbine which is a very time-consuming process. In addition, a large number of wind turbines have been in service for several years. Typically, only analog modem connections to these older wind turbines exist which further limits the rate of data transfer. At typical data volumes, updating may thus take about 1.5 hours for a single turbine. As a result, a software update of all wind turbines of a specific manufacturer may take hundreds to thousands of hours in a given country.